It's been beautiful, sunny, and not too cold here in Seattle that last few days, but in the southern hemisphere it's the first of July (sun time), and the Forbes Flatlands are underway in New South Wales, Australia, just outside the semi-charming farming town of Forbes.

The Forbes meet is one of the major Australian competitions, and Forbes was the site of the last winter's World Hang Gliding Championships. You can always expect a number of European pilots, along with a few Americans, to show up to fly at Forbes, and in the other major competitions in Australia.

Tim Cummings maintains a web site that gives daily reports on the competition. You can check it out at http://www2.eis.net.au/~tim/forbes99/index.html. Tim has done an excellent job, and he is writing up a press release everyday on the results.

This year the Forbes meet has been designed to let the top competition pilots break the existing world records for triangles and out and returns. They have responded with a vengeance, especially the women pilots. Check out Tim's site for the latest records. Tish, Tove, Rohan and others are blazing through the skies.

Tove Heaney, who set the women's distance record last month in Manila is doing very well and is currently in 9^th place, a couple of points behind her husband Grant. I happened to catch a picture of her last year at Hay (that's Conrad Lotten in the middle, and Oleg Bondarchuck on the right):

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